


Card Tricks

by jacquelee



Series: Writer's Month 2020 [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25695973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquelee/pseuds/jacquelee
Summary: At a book club meeting, Nora reveals some things about her life after escaping the Time Bureau and her friends are there to comfort her.Set in between 4x6 and 4x7.
Relationships: Ava Sharpe & Mona Wu, Nora Darhk & Ava Sharpe, Nora Darhk & Mona Wu
Series: Writer's Month 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861585
Kudos: 4
Collections: Writer's Month 2020





	Card Tricks

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Writer's Month 2020](https://writersmonth.tumblr.com) for the Day 3 prompt Magic.

It was Thursday, so Mona and Ava gathered in Nora's cell to read a book. They had taken to calling it book club which by now was already more or less established. They were meeting nearly every other day, drinking Rosé and talking about everything and nothing, Ava loosening up more and more and enforcing the rules less and less. 

At first, Ava had meticulously read every single one of the books Mona insisted on getting into in a specific meeting but when time went on, she realized more and more that it wasn't all that necessary to read them, especially not carefully, since Mona mostly just held long monologues and explained concepts to Nora that the latter didn't know much about. 

So she started treating their meetings as little vacations from her brain, finally having some time off not having to think about anything at all. She treasured that time very much and was glad that if and when she did want to talk about anything important – or one of the other two did – she could always count on having an open ear and some advice, which generally tended to not be all that helpful, but still, it was good to talk to someone.

At the moment, they were tackling a subject that they hadn't really touched upon since that first day when Nora had thrown them all against the wall: magic. As far as Ava understood, the character in their current book was somewhat of a magician but was mainly doing card tricks, which Mona thought was hilarious seeing that Nora was a real witch. 

"And when she's trying to convince the guys that she's actually using real magic just by clearly using marked cards, it's so funny, isn't it? I bet you could actually do card tricks with real magic, right, Nora? Like, enchanting the cards and what not? That would be so cool! Can you show us? I could get a set of cards, no problem."

Ava was tempted to fall back into her rule abiding habits and say no magic was allowed inside the Time Bureau but she held her tongue when she saw how confused Nora looked and something else, hard to pinpoint. Was she… embarrassed? She leaned towards her a little.

"Nora? Is everything okay?"

Mona seemed to have noticed that something was off with Nora too, judging by the frown that now appeared on her face.

"No, I… I mean, yes, everything is fine."

Feeling clearly guilty, Mona tried to reassure Nora.

"I'm sorry I brought up magic. We don't have to talk about it. I'll find a different book. I just thought it would be funny."

She looked miserable and clearly Nora now felt bad about Mona feeling bad.

"No, it's not that, it's just." She took a deep breath, clearly not really knowing how to say what she was going to say. Ava smiled at her encouragingly, getting a hesitant half smile in return. "I don't know what card tricks are."

"What?"

Now everything came out, Nora talking in a tempo they were very much not used to from her, making it hard to keep up.

"When I first escaped from the Time Bureau, I had no idea what to do or where to go. I had my father's timestone but I didn't want to go into an unknown past, or even worse, future. So I staid in the present, but I had never lived on my own in this century before, actually, I had never lived on my own, period. I don't even remember much of my life here before Mallus, I was twelve, I should have been old enough to know things, but I don't.

"I didn't know how to get money to get a place to live and food. I didn't know anything. I basically just walked through the city wondering if I should fall back onto magic, which I really didn't want to do but I was fast running out of options. Then I saw a poster. Someone was looking for witches. I didn't know if it meant actual witches or just people pretending to be witches but I thought that is something I can do either way.

"It turned out it was a renaissance fair, which I had no idea about but I felt at home there because they pretended to be back in the time I spent most of my life in. They mostly just wanted the women they hired to be, and I'm quoting here, lusty, serve men drinks and let them ogle them and I thought it was better than not having any money and not knowing what to do at all. 

"Except sometimes people who got into it too much and wanted to see a real witch would insist on me doing some tricks, especially card tricks and I just didn't know what to say or do. I had kind of heard of illusion magic and tricks and the like when I was a kid but I never really cared about those things so I didn't know what it was all about. And later, I worked as a medium, sure, but there were no cards involved at all. 

"So I just smiled and gave them a free drink and hoped they would leave me alone and they generally did but I just really wanted to know what those tricks were all about. I tried to ask people but I didn't really know anyone and nobody cared enough to explain it to me. I couldn't afford a phone and the one time I tried going into the library to look things up on the internet I got so confused about their set up that I left immediately.

"And in the book, I like it, but it assumes that I already know what this is all about, what marked cards mean, what kinds of cards are in a common set of cards and all those things and I just don't know. I don't know."

With a resigned gesture and near tears, Nora finished her monologue and Ava felt the sudden big urge to hug her but was beaten to the punch by Mona, who rushed to Nora's side and swept her into a big side hug. She was unsure of what to do for a few seconds but realized that she really didn't care about etiquette or whatever anymore, so she also went over to Nora and hugged her from the other side. 

She seemed to relaxed quite a bit under the hug and Mona's reassurances that it was not a problem to not know something, that she could just ask and it would be a pleasure for her to explain. When Nora nodded at that, much calmer now, Mona seemed to decide there was an opportunity to see the positive side of this, as she always did. Her entire face lit up and she jumped up suddenly.

"You know what, this just means I can teach you what card tricks are all about! It's gonna be amazing, just you watch. Oh, I need to prepare things, I will come back later, I will bring all the things, you're gonna learn so much!" She was really getting excited, but suddenly, her face fell and she seemed to become a little unsure. "If that's what you want of course."

Nora only nodded but she had a soft smile on her face even when she still seemed close to tears, but now it was clearly tears of gratitude. 

After a hasty but heartfelt goodbye, Mona left in a hurry, clearly eager to start her lessons in card tricks right away. Ava was still sitting at Nora's side, still hugging her loosely. She grinned a loopy half grin and said a little conspiratorially:

"How much do we want to bet that she comes back with at least five sets of cards and ten books on card tricks?"

That seemed to release the last of the tension Nora still carried as she let out a snort. 

"That much is obvious, yes." 

For a moment, they just sat there, quietly, still close to each other. Their friendship was still new, precarious, but it felt like they had taken a step towards the right direction today.

Later, of course, Mona came back with no less than six sets of cards, claiming that this meant each one of them would have two – neglecting to mention as to why they would need two but neither Nora nor Ava felt like pointing that out to her – and about a dozen books and what seemed like hundreds of printed out pages. 

They spent three hours learning what seemed like every card trick in the world, laughing their asses off in the process, Nora's sadness over not knowing things long forgotten.


End file.
